a broad smile on my face as the

as my birth. There's just something so rich and beautiful about the

l fiction. My characters' love for

n't taken note of this shop before. I'm not too shocked though, considering

onger anywhere close by. I don't waste any more time outside though, for fea

where I carefully place the inkwell on top. I stared at it

o purchase the inkwell, for a second I bel

mething mysterious and scary as well as somet

the surface. I don't know if I'm hallucinating, but I de

another part-a deeper, quieter part-feels draw

wafting out and around me. I dip my pen into t

ow. At first, it's slow, a trickle of thoughts and ideas forming on the page, but

written before. It's dark and Gothic, filled with shadows and secre

ng, enigmatic figure who finds himself trapped by his own nature. He is a

edemption he believes is out of his reach. Not proud of the things he

ith every stroke of my pen, his world takes shape in my mind as though I'm n

words pouring out of me as though I'm merely a c

rd to breathe as my story deepens, the pl

, and why the story seems to be telling itself. Since my last novel, which

as I continue to write. I find myself comp

, and if I weren't so tuned to my surroundings, I would have missed it. A

my apartment. The room is dim, lit only by the soft glow of my desk

chalking it up to my i

tell myself. It's just a trick of the light, a figment of my imagination. But the shadow moves, stepping forward into the light, and my breath hitches in pure, unadulterated terror. Lucien Blackthorn. In flesh and blood. His dark eyes met mine, holding my gaze with a commendable intensity. I pushed my chair back, nearly knocking it over as I scrambled to my feet, my mind reeling. This isn't happening. It can't be happening. Characters don't just step out of stories, they don't just appear in the real world. But there he is, standing before me, every detail exactly as I imagined-no, as I *wrote* h

his eyes seemed to change color, glowing in the dark. I feel myself slowly becoming paralyzed wi